Multinational corporations have voiced optimism about China's economic prospects and pledged efforts to step up investment in the world's second-largest economy, reaffirming that their long-term confidence in the Chinese market remains intact, despite the lackluster global economic recovery.
The global economy was full of surprises in 2023. Despite the sharp rise in interest rates, the US successfully avoided a recession, and major emerging markets did not spiral into a debt crisis. Even Japan’s geriatric economy exhibited stunning vitality. By contrast, the EU fell behind, as its German growth engine sputtered after China’s four-decade era of hypergrowth abruptly ended.
The world faces a protracted period of weak economic growth that will undermine progress on sustainable development, the UN has warned, as it urged countries to raise investment to tackle the climate emergency.
Its annual assessment of the state of the global economy presents a sombre outlook for growth as countries grapple with the impact of higher borrowing costs, geopolitical tensions and heightened risk of climate disasters.
Let’s celebrate. The American Economic Association (AEA), the main professional organisation for economists in the United States, has just awarded the Clark Medal to Gabriel Zucman for his work on the concentration of wealth and tax evasion.
The financial turmoil that led to the downfall of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and Credit Suisse in Europe is not yet over and its effects will be felt for years, the boss of America’s biggest bank has warned.
The free flow of ideas, people, goods, services, and capital across national borders leads to greater economic integration. But globalization, the trend toward these things moving ever more freely between nations, has seen ebbs and flows over the decades.
The world’s leading economists spent most of 2022 convincing themselves that, if the global economy was not already in a recession, it was about to fall into one. But with the year’s end, the global slump has been postponed to 2023.
War in Ukraine is changing the geopolitical and economic landscape, with profound consequences for global growth and markets. Twenty-three years after taking power in the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin looks ready to cripple Russia’s economy for geopolitical gain. Within days, the EU has overturned decades of defence and energy policies to respond with unprecedented sanctions. The invasion will drive Russia into recession, undermining its prospects in the short and long term.
